Month: January 2024

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany: Deuteronomy 18:15-20; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28; Psalm 111

The season of Epiphany is one where Jesus is revealed. Over the past two weeks, we have heard stories of Jesus calling his disciples. Today we hear another story, of Jesus preaching at Capernaum. There “he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes”. So there was something different in his teaching.

At Capernaum he also confronts a man who had “an unclean spirit”. When the man cried out, Jesus rebuked the spirit, saying “‘Be silent, and come out of him!’” The onlookers were amazed, both at his teaching with authority and his ability to command an unclean spirit.

We do not, in the Episcopal church, say much about authority. And yet we need to know how to recognize authority, and identify those who claim authority with no justification. Who do we believe? In an era of artificial intelligence and fake news, this is not a trivial question. Just this morning I read about a set of websites that use AI to create fake obituaries after sudden deaths. In one case, they even falsely said that a young man who died in an accident had been murdered.

Recognizing authority is not a new problem. In today’s reading from the Hebrew scriptures, Moses tells the people of Israel that there will be other prophets who follow him. The Israelites are warned that if they do not heed a prophet sent by the Lord, they will be held accountable; on the other hand, prophets who speak in the name of other gods, or who have not been sent by the Lord, “that prophet shall die”. The Lord reminds people that they have to recognize who really speaks for the Lord.

Obviously, recognizing authority is critical not just in our lives as Christians, but in our lives as citizens. Paul provides some guidance here in our reading from Corinthians, when he reminds us that “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”. Looking for love may help us discern those who speak with authority. Does what someone says increase love? Does it build connection and inclusion?

In the documentary shown this week, A Case for Love, which was inspired by Bishop Curry, we heard stories of people who had acted with love, and the impact of their choices. When we act in love, and use love to encompass everyone, we bring healing to people and to the world. We can even act in love towards those who have done terrible things: we do not need to deny the things they have done, but it is only if we treat them with love and respect that we have hopes of change.

Recognizing authority is a challenge. What our gospel today reminds us is that the authority may not come from those we expect to hold it. Jesus was, after all, just the son of a carpenter, not a scribe or a pharisee. And yet he had authority.

Let us keep looking for love.

Third Sunday After the Epiphany, January 21, 2024: Jonah 3:1-5, 10; 1 Corinthians 7:29-31; Mark 1:14-20; Psalm 62:6-14

Today we are asked how well we listen. What do we hear, and what do we do with what we hear? We are not, as a society, very good at listening, especially to things we do not want to hear. So today’s readings speak in a very real way to the world we live in.

We start with Jonah. Having rescued Jonah from the whale, the Lord sends him to the city of Nineveh to warn of impending doom: in forty days, the city would be destroyed. In case you’d forgotten, the reason Jonah ends up in the whale is that the Lord wanted to send him to Nineveh, and he ran away. This time, Jonah does as he is told. He listens to the Lord.

Much to Jonah’s surprise (and probably to the Lord’s) the people of Nineveh listen the first time. They put on sackcloth, and they repented. In the section our lectionary leaves out, we hear that the King puts on sackcloth and sits in ashes, and calls for everyone to fast. And the Lord changed his mind: Nineveh is not destroyed. The people of Nineveh had listened and acted.

In our gospel reading, we also know people are listening. Mark tells us of the process by which Jesus gathered those we know as his disciples. He sees Simon and Andrew, and calls them, offering to make them fishers of people. And apparently without pausing, they joined him. Soon he sees James and John, and calls to them, and they too leave, abandoning their father to finish mending the nets.

It’s a bit shocking in our modern world to read of those who took what turned out to be momentous decisions wihtout apparently hesitating. Most of us would think of all our obligations and sort out those before throwing it all up and following some rando who offers to change our lives.

In our lives, the calls we receive are less dramatic. We don’t normally have to go sit in sackcloth on ashes to get through troubles. We are not usually called to abandon work and family to serve God. But we may hear other, less dramatic calls. What does it take to hear them? Do we listen? Do we act?

First Sunday after Christmas, December 31, 2023: Isaiah 61:10-62:3;  Psalm 148; Galatians 4:4-7;  Luke 2:22-40

In today’s gospel we leave the intimate scene in the manger that dominates Christmas images. With his parents, we travel the short distance to Jerusalem. There his parents follow Jewish law and present their first born son at the Temple and dedicate him to the Lord. At the temple, Luke reports that Jesus was recognized by two people. Simeon was elderly, “righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.” He had been told he would not die before he saw the Messiah. When Simeon holds the infant, he proclaims thanks to the Lord, saying, “Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace, according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

Following Simeon’s hymn, the prophetess Anna, who was 84 and “never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day”. She saw the infant, she praised God and spoke of the child to everyone “looking for the redemption of Jerusalem”.

I am struck by the response of these two elderly people. Maybe we have Christmas all wrong. We talk about the magic of the day for children, but children have little difficulty creating magic in their lives. It is those of us who are older, who have lived with the griefs and challenges of life, who know how difficult it will be for the children we love, who most need Christmas. We need the reminder that life is not just work and hardship, but that there is salvation and hope. Our work at Christmas is not just for the children, but to remind ourselves of the hope that

Both Simeon and Anna see the child, and know hope. They announce that hope to those around them. It may be difficult among the busy-ness of preparing for Christmas, doing all the things that need doing, that it is about hope. May we listen to Simeon and Anna. As we listen to them, we can admit that we welcome the hope of salvation that has arrived with Jesus.